an initiative by Ayla Dhawan and Slam Out Loud

Runaway

A boy was running to the railway station. When he reached the station, he entered the train after an hour of waiting. However, his parents did not know where he was.

The entire reason for his running away was Wednesday, the 27th of October, a sunny day when everything changed. The boy, named Ramesh, was putting seeds in the soil as he noticed the school bus pass through his village. Ramesh’s parents were not educated and used to make Ramesh farm the whole day.

Several years later, as Ramesh turned fourteen, his passion for studying increased from 10% to 99%. He tried to tell his parents to enroll him in school many times, but they would always ignore him. They would tell him that from the entire village he was the only one who complained about this, and who wanted to go to school. But, Ramesh kept trying and told his parents the same thing numerous times. Alas, the whole village was uneducated and his parents did not understand the importance of education.

One day when Ramesh went to the market to buy seeds with his father, he ran away to the railway station. There, several people were struggling to board the train. A man beside Ramesh helped him get on. Once he reached his destination, he knew he would finally receive an education.